Science / Medicine : Donated Blood and AIDS Risk

A study of heart surgery patients in Baltimore and Houston has concluded that the risk of getting AIDS from a blood transfusion is about 1 in 40,315. The estimate, from a group led by James Donahut of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, is part of an effort by health officials to discover the likelihood that a pint of donated blood is tainted by the virus responsible for AIDS.

Donahut and his colleagues have been trying to track that risk by examining how many heart surgery patients develop AIDS after a transfusion. They reported last year that one pint in every 36,282 was tainted, based on the case of a single patient who became infected.

In an update of their results, reported in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, Donahue and his colleagues said there has been a second case.

Based on the new case, the researchers estimated, the likelihood of getting AIDS from a pint of transfused blood is now about 1 in 40,315.